There has been a bit of a scandal here recently because it appears that Japan has lost a whole load of centenarians (people over 100 years old). The Japan Times carried a story on Tuesday explaining that over 200,000 people aged over 100 years old are "missing".The BBC picked up on this story as well and stated that 230,000 centenarians were unaccounted for. Lets just put this figure into some sort of perspective we all can't understand. If you place these people on a timeline one after the other then ( 230,000 x 100 = .......) this is 230 million years of human life we are talking about. Shit! The dinosaurs lived that long, what on earth is going on in Japan?????????????
Nipponosus Lordus LucanusHow can you loose 230,000,000 years of human life? Dammit we have only been on the planet as a species for 4 million years surely the maths don't add up here!
Ah, yes, well, this is Japan! How did all of this come to light? Well it appears that Tokyo government officials thought it would be a good idea to pop around to the bloke who was the oldest resident, clocking in at a sprightly 111 years of age, and give him an award. God knows what they were thinking of, I mean, a surprise visit by senior council officials, the bowing alone would have killed a man of his age and that only if his heart survived the unexpected arrival.
Thankfully for the officials it transpired that the man was already dead. Unfortunately for the relatives it appeared that he had been dead for 30 years and they had been keeping the by now mummified remains whilst still claiming the pension.
Let's just go back to the headline number, 230,000 centenarians appear to be "missing". That is one hell of a lot of pensions we are talking about! This instilled a very Japanese panic and especially when it was realised that some of those missing would be over 150 years old if still alive!
Now personally I don't blame the relatives, no, I blame the buddhist temples because if you were a relative faced with either keeping the mummified body of the old man and collecting his pension or paying the monks the years of re-incarnation fees, which would you choose?
Ah, yes, well, this is Japan! How did all of this come to light? Well it appears that Tokyo government officials thought it would be a good idea to pop around to the bloke who was the oldest resident, clocking in at a sprightly 111 years of age, and give him an award. God knows what they were thinking of, I mean, a surprise visit by senior council officials, the bowing alone would have killed a man of his age and that only if his heart survived the unexpected arrival.
Thankfully for the officials it transpired that the man was already dead. Unfortunately for the relatives it appeared that he had been dead for 30 years and they had been keeping the by now mummified remains whilst still claiming the pension.
Let's just go back to the headline number, 230,000 centenarians appear to be "missing". That is one hell of a lot of pensions we are talking about! This instilled a very Japanese panic and especially when it was realised that some of those missing would be over 150 years old if still alive!
Now personally I don't blame the relatives, no, I blame the buddhist temples because if you were a relative faced with either keeping the mummified body of the old man and collecting his pension or paying the monks the years of re-incarnation fees, which would you choose?
Bad Karma - no wonder there's a recession.
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